Thursday, March 06, 2008

Murdoch gets ‘The Journal’

Finally, he did it! Dow Jones is now a Rupert Murdoch property. News Corporation is acquiring Dow Jones at a price of $5.6 billion and this was certainly not a smooth sail for Murdoch. Four months of intense negotiations and innumerable conferences over the future of The Wall Street Journal has yielded the result. Few members of the Bancroft family, who hold 37% of the voting rights of Dow Jones, at a point of time, demanded that Murdoch also bear their legal and banker’s expenses incurred in the deal process. This was finally agreed upon and reportedly gave Murdoch what he wanted! Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, said that he was deeply gratified at the level of support he had received from the Bancroft family and its trustees. Murdoch also appreciated Bancroft family’s long and distinguished history as custodians of Dow Jones.

In order to continue with the same editorial standards and quality, people have come to expect of intellectual publications, a five member special committee has been set up. The present members are Louis Boccardi, Thomas Bray, Jennifer Dunn, Jack Fuller & Nicholas Negroponte. News Corp. had proposed the name of Negroponte while the other four were the choice of Dow Jones. The deal was done and is expected to close by fourth quarter of this calander year, a regulatory approval is awaited. There are high chances that the deal will not face any hurdle with the anti-trust approvals as Murdoch’s media property is diversified in terms of products as well as regions. Lack of concentration in one location prevents anti-trust scrutiny for this mega corporation.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

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